r/topre

I suddenly woke up to the notion that I could Topre-fy the keyboard of my M1 Macbook Air, with a combination of the RC1 and the deck linked above.

Has anyone used this combo, though? Does it work in practice the way I think it would work in my head? It's a fairly large outlay to be wrong about, and I'd be using a reship service, so returns might be complicated.

Also, has anyone got any recs on a good carry case for the RC1? I'm pretty sure Realforce don't make one. Something to keep pressure off the domes in transit in a briefcase... don't want squished domes.

https://preview.redd.it/is8i9h74eljh1.png?width=1012&format=png&auto=webp&s=c51a3639800ad9ca5388f044bfbaca579b45e6cf

Hi! This is my first post here.

Over the past few days, I've been experimenting with the firmware used by the HHKB Professional Hybrid and REALFORCE R3 series.

The original question was pretty simple:

Could Rapid Trigger be implemented on a Topre keyboard that was never designed to support it?

It turns out that, at least on the hardware I've tested, the answer is yes.

I ended up building TopreRT, an open-source toolkit that implements Rapid Trigger while trying to preserve the original Topre sensor/state-machine behavior as much as possible.

For the HHKB Professional Hybrid / Hybrid Type-S (PD-KB800W, firmware A0.48), the current version supports:

• All-key Rapid Trigger
• Adjustable release and re-press distances
• Stable and performance-oriented presets
• Custom RT settings
• Live key/sensor observation
• Firmware validation before patching
• Built-in firmware writer and stock restore

I've personally tested the RT core on my HHKB Professional Hybrid, and it is working.

The toolkit also supports the REALFORCE R3 family, although hardware validation varies by model.

Important: this is unofficial firmware modification software. There is always a risk of a failed update or recovery being required. The project does not distribute stock firmware or pre-patched firmware; you need to provide your own supported stock firmware image.

Source code, documentation, supported firmware versions, and recovery information are available on GitHub:

TopreRT v0.2.0:
https://github.com/rocketman2654/TopreRT

This started as a small experiment to see whether Rapid Trigger was even possible on these keyboards, and eventually turned into a toolkit supporting multiple Topre models.

I'd be interested to hear what other HHKB users think — especially if anyone wants to experiment with it or dig into the implementation.